Künstlerhaus Stuttgart

Future Scenarios with an Open End

25 Oct - 14 Dec 2014

Future Scenarios with an Open End, exhibition view at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart 2014
FUTURE SCENARIOS WITH AN OPEN END
Content development: Marwa Arsanios, Marina Fokidis, and Alina Serban
25 October - 14 December 2014

Exhibition: Kasper Akhøj and Tamar Guimarães, Marwa Arsanios, Ion Grigorescu, Samir Harb, Yorgos Sapountzis, mobile archive project “Even my mom can make a book”* initiated by Gamze Özer, Timothee Huguet and Kristina Kramer, and research project »Open End« based on Künstlerhaus & Akademie Schloss Solitude archives

Finissage: Lindsay Foster and Allan Sekula

How do the political climate and cultural context influence artistic practices and curatorial thinking?
How do we exchange ideas, communicate within the artist community and engage with other practices?
What are the common artistic strategies for dealing with institutional frameworks, and what are the main responsibilities for institutions that navigate circulation of artistic research and production as well as its preservation?
What stays with us after collaborations, exhibitions and residencies in the archives?
What could bring hope for imagining a better future?
These questions are born out of intense research and dialogue on exhibition methodology between two Stuttgart based institutions, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart and Akademie Schloss Solitude, and will turn into an exhibition installation and public program.

This project, »Future Scenarios with an Open End«, has been initiated by Jean-Baptiste Joly, director of Akademie Schloss Solitude, and Misal Adnan Yıldız, artistic leader of Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, who decided to conduct open ended research and experiments on exhibition making through sharing their institutional resources. The content has been developed in collaboration with the curators and cooperation fellows Marwa Arsanios (Beirut), Marina Fokidis (Athens) and Alina Serban (Bucharest), all of whom spent two months in residence within this framework at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2014. Since last spring, there have been regular discussions, meetings and informal events in order to exchange ideas, observations and references, aiming to develop conceptual groundwork for exhibition making.

The exhibition program – composed of artistic projects, archival studies, interventions, and public talks – investigates critical tools of political thinking, institutional context and artistic motivations, aiming to operate as a bridge between the history, position and future of the two institutions.

With selected works from Kasper Akhøj and Tamar Guimarães, Marwa Arsanios, and Ion Grigorescu, the exhibition develops an eclectic form of filmic language, which challenges the perception of geopolitical realities, historical transformations, and the position of the artist searching for universal truths. Samir Harb shares the work in progress of his graphic novel and Yorgos Sapountzis shows a work which has not been previously exhibited, translating a historical moment of our global agenda. There will be an installation of artist books that were collected by young professionals based in Istanbul and Berlin. This archive project »Even my mum can make a book« is initiated by Gamze Özer, Timothee Huguet and Kristina Kramer who have been travelling through their network and will further extend its pool through an open call from Künstlerhaus Stuttgart. Last but not the least, the ping-pong discussion between Künstlerhaus Stuttgart and Akademie Schloss Solitude will bring a presentation of research and archive from the history of these two institutions regarding the artists, projects and works that never met – from those whose possible meetings would make sense.

Mapping a shared memory between Stuttgart, Athens, Bucharest and Beirut, and including many stories from Brazil to Palestine, the exhibition points out the possible directions for those who are in search of new prospects. Like a collectively written open letter, the project intends to create discussions around the gaps between individual responsibilities and intellectual positions which are in crisis, in an urgent search for solidarity, collective identity and artistic visions for the future.

The physical distance, the history of collaborations, and the diverse range of conceptual interests between two institutions are the points of departure; their archives, exhibition spaces and budgets, as well as the bus stops (the easiest public transport between Künstlerhaus and Akademie Schloss Solitude is based on a local bus service numbered 92) are bridging the gaps between their memories.

In a nutshell, for the first time in the last three decades of their existence, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart and Akademie Schloss Solitude come together to produce a cooperative project, and now it turns into a never ending work in progress about how we work, what we share and what stays with us after.

* “Even my mom can make a book” is a travelling fanzine and artists’ book project that was initiated in 2010 in Istanbul by Gamze Özer, Kristina Kramer and Timotheè Huguet. Since then the archieve of emmcmakeabook has been expanding and shown in different locations. Until now more than 300 people from all over the world have contributed with their publications. During the exhibition period everybody can join our workshops an make their own publication. Submissions are always welcome. http://evenmymumcanmakeabook.tumblr.com
 

Tags: Marwa Arsanios, Marina Fokidis, Lindsay Foster, Ion Grigorescu, Kasper Akhøj and Tamar Guimarães, Samir Harb, Timothee Huguet, Kristina Kramer, Gamze Özer, Yorgos Sapountzis, Allan Sekula, Alina Serban